Out with the old

For those of you who are with me day to day, you will know that I have had the same cell phone for, oh, more than 6 years. Yes, I know, it was OLD. But hey, it still worked just fine. I was very attached to my phone. Andre gave it to me when we first started dating and I've had it ever since. And I absolutely would NOT get rid of it, despite repeated attempts by my dear husbie to lure me to the Sprint store. My life often seems constantly full of change, so sometimes I cling to the familiar a little too hard :)

Yesterday I finally succumbed and agreed to go and "look" at phones (and not like any of them!) An hour later I had traded in my dear old faithful phone and left with this:



And who knew I'd like pink (much to Andre's chagrin)?! Unexpected, but fun. As much as I miss my old phone for sentimental reasons, I LOVE my new one! It can send text messages (although I don't do that yet as it's slightly too advanced for me), take photos and even has a GPS tracker in it so I can be found should I go missing. Pink perfection.

Look at that grin!

Isn't our little niece the cutest ever?

Catching up

Catching up a bit from the last few weeks: our sister-in-law Rachel also has a birthday in October, so we all celebrated together over dinner two weeks ago.

A few days later, Andre and I, along with Vanessa and little Michaela, set off to Peoria, IL to visit my parents and grandmother, who is in the States for three months. This was three month old Michaela's first plane trip and she is a first class traveler! She rode happily through the airport in her carrier and "people-watched"...

...had a comfortable nap in the Crown Lounge before getting on the plane...

..where she didn't much like the flight attendant's loud announcements, but ended up sleeping all the way to Peoria...


...where she met Sasha...

...visited Grampa at his new office...

...was cuddled endlessly by Nana, Grampa and Great-Granny...

...and was generally just gorgeous!

As for us "grown-ups" we had fun too, celebrating Andre's birthday (a bit early) and my birthday (a bit late), with a wonderful coffee chocolate cake for tea and lovely pressies-thanks Mum and Dad...


...and a fun evening with Granny seeing the show "Mamma Mia"(thanks for the tickets Mum and Dad!)



A good trip all round with lots of family time and good rest.

Excuse our absence...

Taken a break from the web during a week's holiday with my parents in Illinois. Having a wonderful time. Will post soon :)

Our newest family member

This gorgeous little guy, David, belongs to Andre's cousin Jana and her husband Edik, who live in Kazakhstan. We hope they can visit soon!

Birthday Dinner

My dear friend Hannah and I happen to be "birthday twins", sharing the exact same birthday, just a few years apart. Last week my sweet sister organized a little outing with a few of our girlfriends (and of course Michaela). What fun--thanks Ness!

Birthday surprise...a little trip to Lake Oconee

Outside

Inside

Poolside

Fireside

Dinnertime

Checkout time

Church Retreat photos...

The Church Retreat was a success, thanks to wonderful weather, a beautiful facility and lots of help (including my right hand husbie, who I could never manage without!). Here are a few highlights...




Andre and I went up a day early to set things up and get situated.




Despite the many things we had to accomplish to get ready, we did manage to fit in a quick canoe ride around the lake.



We watched the sunset from the canoe...



And woke up the next morning to a beautiful misty landscape that quickly heated up to a clear, sunny Friday...and soon the craziness began!






A bonfire and s'mores (for 300--that's a LOT of marshmallows!) finished off the day.



Saturday was busy, with a couple of hours of down time in the afternoon, during which I hung out with some girl-friends on the front lawn and fed little Michaela.





Thanks to everyone who helped and encouraged and prayed about this event in the life of our church--you know who you are :)